Comments on: Santa Cruz 29″er Project In The Works

By: Dirt McGirt

Dirt McGirt — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:24:00 +0000

9 singlespeeder on May 18th, 2009 at 2:07 am

would love to see a SC superlite 29er.

And I originally like this one when it was called a Fisher Supercaliber.

By: Dirt McGirt

Dirt McGirt — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:23:06 +0000

I like that bike when it first came out and they called it an Intense SPIDER!!!

Pay attention, people, that’s all I’m sayin….

By: Dork On Wheels

Dork On Wheels — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:19:54 +0000

Amen Sinner!

By: SinnerSpinner

SinnerSpinner — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:25:42 +0000

Who cares? Why does the 29 in. wheel need validation from SC Bikes anyway? The company “nailed it” with the Heckler and Superlight before eventually hitting the jackpot with the Bullit, but have done nothing for the sport since. They started out as a “by the riders – for the riders” style of company, but seem to have switched teams over to the “by the engineers – for the engineers” philosophy. The current 26″ VPP linkage is a maintenance nightmare and still just goes back and forth through its travel like every other design. Why should we speculate that the same linkage will somehow magically perform better with an even larger wheel? Why not “test the waters” with a big wheeled Chameleon first?

Thanks GT, for keeping us all in the loop, …and also for providing a venue for my rants.
SC Bikes was such an important player in the mainstream “freeride” and trail bike movement, but they have clearly lost their course. They used to make bikes that were, well, genuinely important.

By: singlespeeder

singlespeeder — Mon, 18 May 2009 07:07:16 +0000

would love to see a SC superlite 29er.

By: UnitedWeRide

UnitedWeRide — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:40:19 +0000

Interesting, I loved my Heckler to death! I would definitely go for a 29er FS from them if it was as good as my Heckler.

By: prphoto

prphoto — Sat, 16 May 2009 14:11:34 +0000

Maybe the growing market share of 29ers (I’ve heard 15% of all MTB’s sold) has convinced the fine folks at SC bikes it’s time to get in the game. The same could be said about Specialized who seem to be making more of an effort lately. The market still seems dominated by Trek/Fisher in terms of model offerings and units sold.
I think although it is true that 29er components are getting better all the time (especially wheels and shocks) “good enough” is always going to be a relative term.

By: t0m

t0m — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:25:48 +0000

In addition to the blog post, by Mike Ferrentino- recognize that name anywhere?- Bike Radar in the UK seem to talk to SC head Rob Roskopp quite a bit, and it’ll be carbon:

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/santa-cruz-debuting-29er-soon-21621

SC has been developing this bike for quite a while, random blog comments about components notwithstanding. They claim to be focusing on chassis stiffness and mention that the 29er app took a lot more time to optimize the VPP in R&D.

By: Davidcopperfield

Davidcopperfield — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:04:30 +0000

Well the discussion what bike they should make is held here
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=518880 as well. Superlight, Blur LT and Nomad ought to be done properly. It is possible to make a 160mm travel 29er with 18.3 chainstays. Fingers crossed.

By: Yourdaguy

Yourdaguy — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:54:38 +0000

Santa Cruz could have been doing what Niner has done the last 3 years which is make the best bikes they could make with the available parts. To me it is hard to argue that there were not sufficiently good parts to make great XC 29ers and to make a really good enduro bike and passable All Mountain bikes. It is probably true that until this year and the stouter forks coming out that it was probably not possible to make a good downhill bike out of available 29er parts. It is also probably true that SC’s first 29er won’t be a downhill bike.